And How's that Working for You?

And How’s that Working for You? (said in my best Dr. Phil impression)

By now, a lot of people reading this blog have a few weeks of the Grocery Game under their belts. So – how’s it working for you?

Or maybe you are reading this because you’ve tried the Grocery Game before, and you just couldn’t make it work.

Believe me – I understand. I think I signed up for the Grocery Game for close to a year and just let week after week go by without actually playing the game.

Why? What’s the difference this time? How have I made it work this time around?

Here's what I KNOW the difference is - I approached it as part of my job of running our home.

Before, each week, I would pull up the lists, and search them for the "free" (green) items, see that there were only one or two, and then move on. After a while, I didn’t even bother to pull up the lists.

What I didn't realize - or failed to really consider - is that "Free" is not the way that the list is supposed to work. It's about stockpiling for the best price. It's not about how much you can get for free. Once I realized that I'd have to spend money to save money, I was good to go. Once I started trusting the list (printing out the list, marking the items that we personally used and crossing off the rest) and shopping ONLY those things (adding only a few need items, like milk, fresh produce, etc.), then it all started to flow.

The first few weeks, it felt really weird. I kept apologizing to my husband - "I know it looks strange what I'm putting in my cart, but I promise it will work out in the end." I had to break my habit of shopping the aisles. I simply print the list, sort through it, pull the necessary coupons, and then go into the store and get only those items plus any immediate need items that I have.

Sure - there are things that might never show up on the list - very specialty items, contact solution, etc. Those are things I would buy anyway, and I won't NOT buy them just because they aren't on the list. But now I have more money to buy those things. Don't throw it out as "not working" just because some specialty dressing you use isn't on the list.

Same goes that I won't buy something just because it IS on the list. I only buy what we use. I might try a new product from time to time and sometimes I love it, and sometimes I don't. But I won't stock up with 12 weeks worth of it. I know if I like it, it will come around again and I can stock up then.

I don't begrudge the time that I spend clipping coupons, filing them, and going through the list. For one thing - like I said - I now consider it part of my "job." I've also seen how much it has reduced the actual time I spend in the store. A little bit more time spent at home planning yields a lot less time in the store.

So basically - treat it seriously, trust the list, play it the way it's supposed to be played, and don't feel like it's going to solve ALL your problems - just some of them.